Ventilating cowl for flood lights or the like



Aug, 12, 1939. J. c. HERRON VENTILATING COWL FOR FLOOD LIGHTS OR THE LIKE Filed Dec. 7, 1928 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 oonooo .o oooooo oo o o o eojooooo aoouo oo rwl lmwl uwl oooooooo o o o HI: I H WI Ii II T ill J. C. HERRON IVYENTILATING COWL FOR FLOOD LIGHTS on THE LIKE Aug. 12, 1930.

Filed Dec. 7, 1928 2 Shets-Sheet 2 Patentecl Aug. 12, 1930 UNITED: STATES JAMES c. HER

PATENT OFFICE RON, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR 'IO REFLECTOR 8r, ILLUMINATING CO., OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS VENTILATING COWL FOR FLOOD LIGHTS ORTHE LIKE Application filed December 7, 1928. Serial No. 324,558.

My invention relates to ventilating cowls, and in its general objects aims to provide a simple, easily manufactured and relatively inexpensive cowl which will provide adel quate ventilation and which also will be ef-' fective for excluding rain, hail, sleet, snow and insects from the structureequippedwith the cowl.

In using outdoor electric projectors-such 10 as those commonly known as floodlights-the high candle-power usually required in such a lamp makesit necessary to employ a tungsten lamp or other source of illumination which will radiate a'large amount of heat.

Consequently, it is necessary to provide ample ventilation for the housing of such a lighting unit to prevent -an overheating which'would seriously reduce the life of the lamp. While this can be accomplished by merely providing ventilating apertures in the housing above the source of light, such aper tures-1f of ample size for effective ventllationwill readily permit rain, snow or the like to enter the housing, whereupon the 5 moisture impinging on the hot tungsten lamp is apt to crack the lamp .bulb and ruin the lamp.

Attempts at preventing suchan entry at moisture by means of a hood over the ventilating apertures have proven inadequate except in unusuallv calmweather, as air currents will readily drive rain. snow or sleet under the hood. overhanging hood does not prevent the entry of insects attracted bythe glare of the lamp.

and the customary hood or cowl constructions also are apt to permit moisture to enter at the joint between the cowl and the lamp casing. Q

My present invention aims to overcome all. of these objections and also aims to provide a cowl which will readily permit the entran e of the needed electrical feed wires, and which will serve as a convenient support for a lamp socket or other lamp-holding device.

More particularly, mv invention aims to provide a cowl having its upper portlon so designed that it will readily shed water and N direct the latter away from the ventilating apertures,the interior of the cowl being de- Furthermore, the use of an Furthermore, my invention provides a-cowl' construction which can. easily be'installed, and which will permit a ready detaching of both the cover portion and theinsect screen for access to the interior of the cowl.

Still further and also more detailed objects will appear from the following specification and from the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. l is a rear elevation of an upper portion of an electric flood light equipped with a ventilating and insect-excluding cowl embodying my invention. e

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same cowl, taken from the right-hand side of Fig. 1, with the cover removed.

Fig. 3 is anenlarged plan view of the same cowl with the cover detached and with a por tion of the wire screenbroken away.

Fig. 4; is a bottom view of the cover of the cowl, drawn on the same scale as Figs. 1 and 2.

Fig. 5 is avertical section through the cover, taken along the line 55 of Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is a central and vertical section, through the complete cowl, taken along the line 6-6 of Fig. 2 but drawn on the same enlarged scale as Fig. 3. v

Fig. 7 is a similarly enlarged vertical section,taken along theline 77 of Fig. 6.

In the illustrated embodiment, my cowl comprisesa cowl body (shown separately in Fig. 2) fitted at its top with a wire screen and formed for providing suitable wire inlets, and a cover for effectively excluding moisture even in the presence of high winds.

The body of my cowl includes an upright and tubular main portion 1 whichhasits base formed to fit snugly against the upwardly apertured structure on which the cowl is mounted, which structure here is a lamp cas ing 2, and this base port1on desirably is thickened and widened to allow for a downwardly open groove 3 which can be filled with cement to seal the tubular cowl body to the lamp casing. A centrally perforate top 4 extends across the upper end of the tubular main portion 1 and carries an upright flue 5 which is considerably smaller in length and breadth then the said top, and this flue has oppositely directed flanges 6 at its upper end. Seated on the upper end of the flue is a screen 7 having sufficiently small apertures to prevent insects from passing through 1t, and this screen has two edge portions downwardly recurved (as shown at 7A to hook under the said.

flanges 6).

Freely housing the said flue and screen is,

a cover which has its top 8 spaced upwardly from the screen, and which has its sides 9 depending for a considerable distance below the upper end of the tubular cowl bo'dyl and spaced outwardly from the latter. An inner tube 10 of smaller horizontal dimensions than the bore of the cover but larger horizontal dimensions than the flanged upper end of the flue depends from the top 8 of the cover toward the top 4 of the cowl body and has downwardly projecting fingers 11 and 12 which seat on the said body top 4. Certain of these fingers, such as the fingers 12 are desirably tubular so that screws 13 can extend down-- war'dly through them for fastening the cover to the cowl body. I

WVh en the cover is attached to the cowl bod the above described formations compel the Figs. 6 and 7. This heated air first passes upwardly through the flue 5 and the perfora-- tions in the screen 7 to the space between the screen and the top 8 of the cover, then laterally toward the tube 10 which'denends from the cover, downwardly between the flue and the bore ofth s tube 10, outwardly under the low er end of the tube 10 between the fingersll and 12, and downwardl between the side and end walls'9 of the cover and the upper portion of the tubular cowl body 1. Owing to the considerable heating of the air within the lamp casing, the resulting draft is sufficient to draw the hot air through such winding paths even when the side and end walls 9 of the'cover depend considerably below the'top of the cowl body, so that my arrangement readily affords the needed ventilation. I 1

However, this disposition of the cover effectively prevents rain, snow or sleet from driving into the interior of the cover, and if any such forms of moisture are splashed or blown upwards between the cowl body and the lateral walls of the cover, these will be intercepted by the flanges 6,011 the flue and still will not reach the mouth of the flue. Conse quently, my construction effectively excludes moisture from the cowl and l1kew1se greatly deters the entrance of dust. The widths of the passages through which the heated air issues can readily be made sufficiently small to keep any large insects from getting under the cover, while tiny ones will be prevented by the screen 7 from entering the flue even if they succeed in getting as far as this screen.

To permit ready access to all portions of my cowl, I preferably hook the screen ends 714 only over two oppositely directed flanges 6 on the flue, while leaving the remainder of the screen to seat on the upper end of the flue and to-seat on all four of these flanges. When the screws 13 have been loosened and the cover has been lifted'off, the screen can be slid off (by moving it either toward the left or toward the right in'Fig. 7), thereby affording free access to all parts of my cowl and even affording access through the bore of the flue to the interior of the lamp casing.

lVhile the projecting ledges or flanges 6 at the upper end of the flue are only neededat two opposite sides of the flue for retaining the screen in its operative position, I preferably provide similar projecting flanges 16 also on the two other sides of the flue, so that these four flanges form a ledge extending entirely around the flue and spaced upwardly from the top 4 of the cowl body. These overhanging flanges or ledges increase the difflculty of having insects even reach the screen and also will intercept moisture in case any should be splashed up over the top of the cowl body, after which such rain or the like can then freely drain off the cowl body.

For the wire inlets, I desirably bulge one wall of the cowl body outwardly to form a dormer 17 with a bottom 18 having perforations aligning with perforations 20 in an insulator l9 fastened to the dormer bottom, so that the wires can enter through these alined perforations.

- Since the major portions of my ventilating and protective cowl are easily made casting s,,my entire arrangement is both ineXpen sive and easily assembled, and can readily be adapted both in its size and in the shape'of its base to structures of different shapes. WVhere my cowl is to be mounted on a curving surface, such as the illustrated portion 2 of a lamp casing, I may correspondingly curve both the base of the cowl body, the cowl top,

the upper end of the flue,the flanges or ledges 6 and 16, and the cover top 8, thereby securing the needed vertical spacing between various ports with a minimum weight of the castings for these and also enhancing the appearance. The height of the cowl body may be varied according to the space required in it for the wires, lamp socket and the like, and for non-electric purposes the dormer may obviously be omitted. However. while ,I have illustrated as embodiment of my invention in which the screen as well as thecast cover and body portions of my cowl are thus curved, I do not wish to be limited to this particular shaping of the parts. Indeed, many changes might obviously be made in the construction and arrangement of my cowl without departing from either the spirit of my invention or from the appended claims. Nor do I wish to be limited to the empolyment of my invention in connection with a lamp casing or other electrically warmed housing.

I claim as my invention:

1. A ventilating cowl comprising an upright tubular body having an upper portion of contracted diameter; a cover supported by the body and having its top spaced upwardly from the top of the body, the cover having sides depending from its edges and spaced outwardly from the body; an intermediate upright tubular element extending from the cover to the top of the body and spaced radially of the cowl from both thereof, the said element having ventilating passages extending through it, and a screen extending across the upper end of the cowl body and slidably attached to the latter.

2. A ventilating cowl comprising an upright tubular body having an upper portion of contracted diameter; a cover supported bvthebodvandhaving its top spaced upwardlv from the top of the body, the cover having sides depending from its edges and spaced outwardly from the body; an intermediate upright tubular element extending from the cover to the top of the body and spaced radially of the cowl from both thereof. the said element having ventilating passages extending through it; the cowl body having two oppositely directed flanges at its upper end, in combination with a screen extending across the upper end of the cowl body and having opposite edge portions recurved downwardly toward each other into hooking engagement with the said flanges.

3. A cowl for ventilating a housing having an upper aperture. comprising an upright tubular cowl body fitted upon the said housing in alinement with the aperture. the upper portion of the cowl body being of contracted diameter and adjoined to the top of the lower portion by an annular shoulder: and a cover having its top spaced upwardly from the upper end of the cowl bodv and having depending sides spaced radially outward from the cowl body and extending below the said shoulder; the cover having an integral depending t be f ee y housing the upper end of the cowl body: the said tube being spaced inwardly from the said sides of the cover and having integral downwardly projecting lugs seating on the said annular shoul der; the diametrically contracted upper portion of the cowl body having at its upper end an outwardly directed flange extending parallel to the top of the cowl and spaced by a relatively short distance from the said top; the outer edge of the said flange being spaced by a relatively short distance inwardly from the bore of the said tube, and the depending sides of the cover being spaced by a greater distance from the periphery of the cowl.

Signed at Chicago, Illinois, November 30th, 1928.

JAMES C. HERRON. 

